With just over 80% of South Africa’s fuel price being made up of govern-ment levies and taxes and the basic fuel price, the South African Petroleum Industry Association (Sapia) states South Africa’s fuel prices are below the global average petrol price.

Based on a sample of ten countries, done last month by international data collection website Global Petrol Prices, Sapia indicates that Norway has the most expensive petrol in the world as it sells for R27.7/∙.

Fuel in

the UK, which sells for R23.36/∙, while in Sweden it sells for R22.61/∙, Greece for R23.99/∙ and Germany for R21.7/∙.

At the time of collection of this data, South Africa’s global average was at R13.43/∙ of 93 Octane.

With the exception of oil producing countries, the average price of fuel globally is R14.30/∙, which places South Africa just under the average currently.

Sapia executive director Avhapfani Tshifularo highlights that, as a general rule, countries that produce and export oil have significantly lower prices.

However, he points out that differences in prices globally were largely owing to the various taxes imposed by governments, as all countries have access to the same prices on international markets.

In South Africa, the Department of Energy (DoE) announced a decrease of 93 Octane by 2c, a decrease of 95 Octane by 5c, and the drop of diesel by 13c as of the beginning of this month.

“The DoE oversees and administers a formula which determines the price of fuel on a monthly basis. “The overall price of petrol at the pump is, therefore, not determined by South Africa’s petroleum refining and marketing companies,” says Tshifularo.

Sapia explains that about 29% of the South African fuel price is made up of government’s levies and taxes, while 55% is made up of the basic fuel price.

Tshifularo explains that the basic fuel price is largely based on spot prices quoted daily on international markets. While the remaining elements that make up the petrol price are transport costs and industry margins.

Other countries that are in the same pricing league as South Africa are Brazil (R13.8/∙) and India (R13.4/∙).

Motorists in Zimbabwe pay R16.65/∙ and in Mozambique they pay R16.49/∙, which is more than the global average.

Oil producing countries such as Oman pay R3.40/∙, Qatar pays R2.95/∙, while Saudi Arabia pays R1.76/∙.

Venezuela is the cheapest at 16c/∙ as the fuel cost is heavily subsidised by government.